I Just want to read ebooks with you.

Last week with the Kindle Paperwhite’s software update came the newly added support for Simplified Chinese. This maybe another hint alluding to an incoming Chinese release of the electronic reader.

Addition of Chinese support alone isn’t enough evidence to justify this theory of course. There may be been technical issues in the past which prevented Amazon from supporting the complex Chinese script. However, that’s not all.

Another clue comes from the China Radio Management Agency’s website, which shows that four Kindle devices were submitted for evaluation for a Chinese radio license. If that’s not a big X marking the spot, I don’t know what is.

Finally, Chinese support. What took you so long, Amazon!

What’s more, in 2011 Amazon already confirmed that they were planning a future Chinese launch, so what is really surprising is that its took them this long. Amazon would be foolish to miss another Christmas’ worth of sales, and may be ramping up for a festive release in the mainland.

It is interesting to note the timing of this move too. 2 weeks ago I wrote an article about Amazon China’s president Wang Hanhua resigning amongst rumors of Amazon attempting to ‘speed up’ the strategy of the Chinese branch. This would correlate with the sudden rush of events to indicate a Kindle launch. Amazon have also just released their Kindle devices in Japan, and this may be part of a larger strategy to take on Asia as a whole.

Until Amazon get a move on, we always have… this thing….

With billions of potential customers, Amazon would be silly to miss out on this opportunity. While e-book piracy is rampant in the mainland, that doesn’t mean that people wouldn’t be willing to pay for quality content should it be easily available. Hopefully Amazon can rectify that situation better than any local tablet clone has in the past.

Below is a list of forty tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the Google Nexus 7 tablet, from basic getting started tips for the beginner to hacks and ROMs for advanced users. Feel free to add your own tips in the comments section too!

The Basics – Getting Started

1. Nexus 7 Guidebook – The Nexus 7 Guidebook contains a lot of useful information for getting started with Google’s new tablet. It comes pre-loaded on the Nexus 7 and is located in the Google Play Books app.

2. Screen Rotation – By default, the Nexus 7 is locked in portrait mode. You can switch to auto-rotate by pulling down the notifications menu at the top of the screen and tapping the rotate icon to the right of the date. Note that the homescreen doesn’t support landscape mode, however (see #11 and #38 to fix that).

3. Notifications – Pulling down the notifications menu at the top of the screen grants access to the button for the Settings Menu, the time and date, and a list of all your recent emails, events, activities, app updates, etc. Tap a notification to access it, swipe left to remove it from the list, or hit the button in the upper right corner to close all notifications. Sounds for notifications can be changed in Settings > Sound > System. The volume of notifications can be set separately from the master volume by pressing the settings button next to the on-screen volume slider. Turn off notifications by going to Settings > Accounts > Sync.

4. Widgets – The homescreens can display widgets, bookmarks, individual ebooks, folders for certain apps, and a lot more (it all depends on what apps you have installed). Widgets are located in the widget section of the app drawer. By default the homescreen shows a large Google widget. You can remove it and any other widget simply by long-pressing and dragging to the remove icon at the top of the screen. You can also re-size many widgets by long-pressing and then adjusting the blue lines that appear.

5. Folders – Android supports creating folders on the homescreen to group apps, bookmarks, and ebooks together. Simply hold and drag an icon onto another. You can also name the folders.

6. View Available Storage Space and RAM – Since the Nexus 7 has limited storage space, you are going to want to keep an eye on the available space from time to time. Hit Settings > Storage. To see available RAM go to Settings > Storage > Apps > Running.

7. Uninstalling Apps – The easiest way to uninstall an app is to press and hold the app icon from the list of apps in the app drawer and then drag it to the top of the screen where it says uninstall. If it only shows App Info and no uninstall option is available, then it is a system app and can’t be uninstalled. However, if you drag the app to where it says App Info you’ll have the option to disable the app.

8. Lock Screen – It’s a good idea to go into Settings > Security to configure a lockscreen to make your tablet secure. You can set a password or pattern or even set the Nexus 7 to wake up by showing it your face. For added security you can set it to open when you blink your eyes so a photo will not unlock the screen.

9. Font Size – The font size can be adjusted in Settings > Display > Font Size. There is also a secondary setting for large text in Accessibility > System.

10. Wallpapers – Long-press on any open space on the homescreen to bring up the wallpapers menu. Android has live wallpapers, static wallpapers, or you can use your own photos and pictures or some downloaded from the internet.

Whenever you use a new computer for eBooks from an OverDrive-powered site, you will be prompted to ‘Authorize’ Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). To enjoy eBooks on additional computers or devices, be sure to authorize each one with the same Adobe ID. You may authorize up to 6 devices.

Note: These instructions are for ADE 2.0. Please make sure you’re using the most up-to-date version before continuing.

What you need

Adobe Digital Editions installed on your Windows or Mac computer

Authorize your computer

If you aren’t prompted to authorize ADE the first time you open it, you can go to Help > Authorize Computer (if you have not already authorized).

If you have an Adobe ID, enter it along with your password.

If you do not have an Adobe ID, click Create an Adobe ID to make one on Adobe’s website.
Once you’re done, return to the ‘Adobe Digital Editions’ dialog box and enter your Adobe ID and password.

Amazon Kindle owners in the UK can now borrow eBooks, including all seven Harry Potter titles, from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which launches today.
Kindle users can choose from more than 200,000 books to borrow for free. These can be read on Kindle e-ink e-readers and also the Kindle Fire tablet computers.

Amazon has also today announced that its new Kindle Paperwhite, the most advanced e-reader it has ever offered, is coming to Britain this month.

To access the Lending Library, consumers must sign up for an Amazon Prime membership, which costs £49 per year and gives users discounted delivery on products bought from Amazon.

UK Prime members with Kindle devices can now also access thousands of digital books to borrow for free, as frequently as one a month with no due dates.

Alongside JK Rowling‘s Harry Potter books, the library also offers various popular titles across fiction and non-fiction, including Stephen Leather’s The Basement and M.C Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series.

There are also thousands of titles available from the Kindle self-publishing platform, including best-sellers such as Love…From Both Sides by Nick Spalding and As if By Magic by Kerry Wilkinson.

“Owning a Kindle is getting even better. Today, we’re announcing that our newest Prime benefit, built just for Kindle, is coming to UK customers: The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library,” said Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com.

“Prime members will have exclusive access to a huge library of books to read on any Kindle device at no additional cost and with no due dates.

“We’re already seeing the programme’s success in the US for both readers and authors – customers are reading more and authors are reaching a whole new audience while making money in a new way – and we’re excited to bring it to customers in the UK.”

Books can be checked out from the library using a customer’s Kindle device, and users can have one book at a time. The titles are also returned with the device and any notes, highlights or bookmarks are automatically saved should the person re-borrow the book.

Alongside the UK, the Lending Library is coming soon to users in France and German.

Amazon has also started UK pre-orders of the Kindle Paperwhite and confirmed that the product will ship to customers on October 25.

Billed as the “most advanced e-reader ever constructed” by Amazon, the Paperwhite offers 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast than other Kindles, and comes with a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions.

The Paperwhite offers up to eight weeks of battery life and is priced from £109 for the WiFi version or £169 for the WiFi and 3G model.

As with other 3G Kindle devices, the premium Paperwhite model involves Amazon paying for the 3G connection so that customers can download content anywhere and anytime in more than 80 countries with no annual contracts.

Adobe has officially released Digital Editions 2.0, which comes with several improvements and changes.

The interface has been completely redesigned to be screen-reader friendly.

The software now presents ebooks as a simple tile or list item. The hover-over context menus are gone. To bring up a context menu, right-click on a cover image.

Activating compatible ebook readers has improved significantly. Simply plug in an ebook reader, open Adobe Digital Editions (ADE), then drag a library title over to the device. The software automatically registers and authorizes your device with your computer’s Adobe ID.

Adobe has updated the the way the software installs.

This is brand-new software, so there may be a few bugs. There’s one inconsistency that you should be aware of: Loan period banners are not always accurate. For example, a brand-new three-week loan may show up as a two-week loan. Loans still expire at the appropriate time. It’s just the banner that is off. OverDrive has notified Adobe of the issue.

Several weeks after Amazon took the wraps off its Kindle Fire HD lineup, Barnes & Noble did the same this morning with two new HD Nook tablets of its own.

The Nook HD joins the Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7 in the 7-inch tablet game. But which is best? In our hands on with the Nook HD, PCMag found that it might have “the best screen on a 7-inch tablet to date.” The Nook HD boasts a 1,440-by-900 display compared to the Kindle Fire HD’s 1,280-by-800 screen. But for $199, you get 8GB on the Nook HD and 16GB on the Fire HD. You can bump up to 16GB on the Nook HD for $229 (a 32GB Fire HD is $249).

The Kindle Fire HD is slightly heavier than the Nook HD at 13.9 oz compared to 11.1 oz, but they’re virtually identical in size. Both run a customized version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and TI OMAP chips, but the Fire HD sports a 1.2-GHz OMAP 4460 to the Nook HD’s 1.3-GHz OMAP 4470.

Both include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support; the Nook HD will connect for free in all Barnes & Noble stores. If you’re looking for a camera, the Fire HD has a front-facing one, but you won’t find a camera on the Nook HD.

Content will likely be a major consideration. The Kindle HD taps into the Amazon Appstore and its approximately 50,000 apps. The Nook provides access to Nook Apps, which has about 6,000 apps. The Kindle can also access Amazon’s video services, but B&N announced that it will soon launch Nook Video, which will serve up similar content.

It is a great time for consumers especially if you are on a lookout for an affordable Tablet. On Monday Barnes and Noble introduced their Nook Tablet as a direct competitor to Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

If you compare the two tablets on cost, both are economical. However which Tablet one must choose depends solely on his tastes, lifestyle and technical needs.

The Nook tablet costs $199 and offers same RAM and 8 GB of memory. The Nook Tablet also has a microSD slot for an additional 32 GB of external memory. Kindle Fire and Nook Tablets both offer cloud storage for the users.

To be fair to Kindle fire is priced $199 and offers over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games.

The Nook Tablet comes with Netflix and Hulu plus and if the user has already subscribed to these, it will be better to get a Nook Tablet. If the user has an Amazon Prime membership he will naturally choose the Kindle Fire. The deciding factor could be with which service the user is hooked on to.

EPUB files will not be supported by Kindle Fire while the Nook Tablet will not support AMZ files. Both the tablets will not support Sony or Microsoft‘s eReader file formats.

Other features of Nook include Ad free experience which is not the case with Kindle Fire. The Nook also boasts as being the lightest Tablet and also has the highest resolution screen.

The Nook comes with a wall charger while Kindle Fire does not have it and has to be purchased separately for $9.99. The screen of the Nook Tablet has a resolution of 1440-by-900, Displays HD @ 720p, 243 pixels per inch.

The screen of Kindle Fire has a resolution of 1280-by-800, Displays HD @ 720p, 216 pixels per inch. The Nook has a 1.3 GHz Dual-Core, OMAP 4470 Processor while the Kindle Fire has 1.2 GHz Dual-Core, OMAP 4460 Processor.

Overall both the tablets are almost equal in most features except a few like expandable memory and processor where the Nook scores slightly more than Kindle Fire.